Friday, 10 July 2015

NG 635

I had FAIN, MAJOR, MICRON, MACRON, CAMION ("a strongly built truck or cart for carrying heavy loads"), and CONFIRM.

The Macquarie does not list JANIFORM (my Chambers does -- "Janus-faced" -- but only capitalised; I gather that it would be allowed in Scrabble), so seven is the best to be done. The other sevens are FORMICA / ACIFORM ("needle-shaped").

My selection: CONFIRM

Round 2: O K T S I R O S D

I had KITS, STORK, STORKS, ROOSTS, and TOROIDS.

DISROOTS is not listed, so again seven is the best to be done. The other is SKIDOOS.

My selection: TOROIDS

Round 3: Target 833 from 50 4 3 7 1 3

Applying the standard method, the target is near 17*50 = 850. The offset is also 17, which thus gives us the factorisation 17*49. I went with 833 = (50 - 1)*(3*7 - 4) at first, then realised that I could change that up a bit for another solution: 833 = 7*(4 + 3)*(50 + 1)/3.

My selection: 833 = (50 - 1)*(3*7 - 4)

Round 4: S W A E T I U F B

What a selection of surprisingly ill-fitting letters. I had WASTE and SAUTÉ.

The sixes here are BEAUTS, FIESTA / FASTIE, and BEFITS.

My selection: WASTE
Best: BEFITS

Round 5: I E N R O C A L G

I had REIN, CRANE, CLEARING, wondered about CAROLING (valid), was also unsure about RELACING (not valid), and ANGELIC.

My first thought was to start with 10*50 + 75; the offset is 11, and that can be made both with and without a tweak. The former gave me 564 = 10*50 + 75 - 3*4 + 1, while the latter yielded 564 = 10*(50 - 1) + 75 - (4 - 3).

My selection: 564 = 10*50 + 75 - 3*4 + 1

Round 7: S E D N E R N D O

I had SEND, NEEDS, SENDER, REDONE, and NODDERS. After time I noted SODDEN as another six.

The eight that I missed is ENDORSED. The other sevens are ENDORSE and REDDENS.

My selection: NODDERS
Best: ENDORSED

Round 8: Target 433 from 25 100 2 4 6 9

The offset for the standard method is 8, which lends itself well to tweaking. I went with 433 = 4*(100 + 2) + 25 at first, then noted an alternative of 433 = 4*(100 + 6) + 9.

MANIC (Sam, I think my family had a kitchen table surface made of FORMICA in the sixties)DISKS and then SKIRTS after timex out of range and nothing much after a few minutes. Tried for 7*119 but to no avail. Love your solution Sam. WAFTSCLEARING10*50+75-(4*3-1)=564 SENDER and ENDORSED after timeSam's way CHAPERONE (221s)